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19051903 1906 1929 1934 1940 1942 1952 19561941

Several people interviewed for this history have noted that while there have been significant changes to the physical plant over the years, anyone returning after a long time away would feel very much at home.

The returnee entering the building through the main door would still find the Exchange with its welcoming fireplace. The chapel remains down the hall to the right and the library to the left. It is those three elements that make the Wissahickon Inn so familiar. The school benefits from the Inn’s history, one that was affirmed when it was named a National Historic Landmark in 1979.

Henry Howard Houston built the Wissahickon Inn in 1884 as an early part of his Wissahickon Heights development. A flourishing resort for many years, its popular-ity was in decline by the time Houston’s son-in-law, Charles W. Henry, offered it to CHA in 1898, at

Wissahickon Inn Anchors CHA’s Modern CampusThe CHA Story: Chapter 2 by Clark Groome ’60

For all the generations that have passed through Chestnut Hill Academy, and for all the changes that have taken place to the buildings and grounds, it is the Wissahickon Inn – that familiar and grand, three-storied, U-shaped Queen Anne building and its entrance, the Exchange - that remain constant.

first for the off-season winter months, and then finally year-round when the Inn ceased operations in 1900. The school’s move to Willow Grove Avenue ended its off-again, on-again history.

With 250 bedrooms, the Inn supplied plenty of space for boarding students, mostly on the third floor. Other school elements – a library, a gymnasium, and classrooms for science, for example – had to be created in areas designed for leisure and social interaction.

When the school moved to its present location, Edward Calvin Durfee, an English teacher and housemaster, wrote in the school’s Quarter Century Review that, “the athletic facili-ties [included] the ‘Old field,’ which had been . . . recently used as the ring of the horse show.” That field, upgraded for use as a playing field and surrounded by a track in 1903, still serves as the varsity baseball field and is thought to be the oldest scholastic baseball field in the region.

The first major renovations to the main building were made in 1905 and 1906. The Inn’s open-air swimming pool was enclosed and a gymnasium built next door in 1905. That same year the Inn’s ballroom, which had served as an assembly hall, a gym, and at one point even the home for Headmaster James L. Patterson’s Oldsmobile during the winter, was turned into the school chapel by lowering the floor five feet.

The next year the Inn’s dining room became the school library. It was dedicated in Charles Wolcott Henry’s memory to honor the man who, more than any-one, was responsible for the school’s rejuvenation in 1895.

As the school moved into the early decades of the 20th century, CHA’s physical plant required ongoing attention, mostly the standard maintenance needed by older build-ings. One of the major changes was the removal, in the 1920s, of the wide porches that surrounded the entire facility. This brought more light to the classrooms and gave the school the look it has today. This removal may have caused the students sadness since those porches were used for roller skating on rainy days.

Concerns about troubles with the heating plant, about better space for science. and also about the need for a building for the youngest students were ongoing. No action was taken, however, because of the stock market crash on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929. CHA, like individuals, institutions, and businesses everywhere, had to fight just to survive.

The first impact of the Great Depression was the diminution of the number of board-ing students. Ruth Parachini reported in her centennial history that, “In 1933-1934 an extensive survey of the Academy and its purposes and problems was made with the aid and advice of Dr. E.D. Grizzell of the University of Pennsylvania. The final report of the survey committee . . . found that because of the depression, the enrollment of board-ing students had been rapidly shrinking but that the expenses of running the boarding department had continued disastrously high. It was recommended that the boarding department be given up, that Chestnut Hill Academy become a college preparatory country day school for boys.”

This major change in the academy’s operations in 1934 eliminated the need for living quarters. The result was that the third floor, except for a few classrooms in the school’s northwest wing, was closed. It would remain vacant for the next 65 years. It was, how-ever, a destination of many adventurous students over the years. Their names and mes-sages adorned the walls. Exploring the third floor became a rite of passage for genera-tions of CHA boys.

From the time that CHA took over the Inn, the Houston family had been the owner of the buildings and the campus on which they rested. As the Great Depression continued into the late 1930s the Houston estate decided to turn the facilities over to the school. To that end, deeds to four buildings—the Inn, the former swimming pool, the gym-nasium, and the recreation building located at the junction of Valley Green Road and Springfield Avenue – and 22 acres of land were transferred to the Academy in 1940. CHA was reincorporated under the Pennsylvania non-profit code. Until the transfer, the Houstons were entitled to keep any profits the school earned although, Parachini reports, “there is no reason to believe any profits were ever made.”

The Great Depression’s effects on the school were exacerbated on December 7, 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II in Europe and the Pacific. Students and faculty members enlisted in the armed services. Money was tight. The school decided that the only way it could survive was to eliminate the high school grades. Beginning in the fall of 1942 CHA’s Upper School closed.

During that time, several other local schools folded. CHA did not. Under Headmaster Robert A. Kingsley’s guidance during the war years, the school began to increase in enroll-ment, requiring the addition of a 9th grade in 1943. When World War II ended, the school continued to grow. By the early 1950s it was decided to reestablish the Upper School.

In the mid-1950s a group of ice skating devotees wanted to build a skating rink in Chestnut Hill. After much discussion,

Current baseball field created surrounded by a track

Swimming Pool enclosed

Gymnasium built

Inn ballroom converted to chapel

Inn dining room becomes Charles Wolcott Henry Library

Stock market crash

Great Depression begins

Boarding department closed

Houston Estate transfers deeds to buildings and campus to CHA

Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor

United States enters World War II in Asia and Europe

Upper four grades closed

Reestablishment of Upper School begins

Gymnasium named The Woodward Gymnasium

Forrest Pearson ’33 Tennis Courts com-pleted

First graduating class since 1942

Lower level of new gymnasium opens

Wissahickon Skating Club opens

Henry Library in the Main Building in 1953. Above the shelves are murals painted by renowned artist Violet Oakley. The biblical scenes depict Solomon, David, and Jesus as boys.

“The Exchange,” heart of CHA’s daily life, in 1900.

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Wissahickon Inn Anchors CHA’s Modern Campus

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1957 1959 1961 1963 1966 1969 1971 1973

DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE?

If you have school memories or historical facts that you would like to share with us, please send them to Clark Groome at cgroome@chestnuthillacademy.org. If you have old photos or memo-rabilia that you would like to donate to the school, please send them to Diane Drinker, assistant director of Alumni Affairs, who oversees our archives.

Wanted...Memorabilia, Memories

the location picked was at the southwest corner of Willow Grove Avenue and Cherokee Street on CHA land. Never anticipating the extent of the academy’s future growth, CHA signed, in 1955, an agreement leasing that land for 99 years at, believe it or not, just $1 per year. The Wissahickon Skating Club opened a year later.

The old gym was named in 1952 in memory of George Woodward, who had died earlier that year. Woodward had married Gertrude Houston in 1895, and early on had joined his brother-in-law Charles W. Henry in enthusiastic support of the Academy. In 1955 the lower half of a new gymnasium was built. It provided additional space, primarily for locker rooms, that connected to the Woodward Gym.

The racquet sports were not forgotten during this period. Forrest G. Pearson ’33 gave the school four all-weather tennis courts that were completed in 1956. In 1968 the school built four squash courts. Both of these sports had been played at the neighboring Philadelphia Cricket Club prior to the school building its own facilities.

Whether the USSR’s launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, had any direct effect on the board’s decision to build a science building is unclear. That launch and the consequent nationwide angst over American competence in science made the school’s next major project – a new science building, which opened in 1959 – particularly relevant.

The originally planned campaign to raise the money became unnecessary when C. Mahlon Kline contributed more than $200,000 in Smith Kline & French stock. He did it, according to his niece Jane Jordan Lea (later O’Neill), to honor his father Mahlon N. Kline, who had started his productive career as a science teacher. The building was named in Kline’s honor.

Mrs. Lea, the parent of three CHA boys and an active and generous board member, was the moving force behind many CHA projects. She, her mother, and her uncle rank with the Houston/Henry/Woodward family as among the most gener-ous in CHA history.

The next construction was the completion of the new gym’s upper level with its new basketball court and grandstand. It was finished in time for the school’s 1961 centennial celebration. The board’s focus now turned to a much-needed building for its youngest boys.

Once again the Jordan/Kline/Lea family made it possible. Jane Lea convinced her mother, Mrs. T. Carrick Jordan, that she should not be outdone by her brother’s gift of the sci-ence building. In a dramatic demonstration of sibling rivalry, Mrs. Jordan agreed to pay for the new building. The Jordan Primary Building opened in 1963 and houses Kindergarten, Pre-First, 1st, and 2nd grades.

For most of CHA’s history on Willow Grove Avenue, the school’s headmaster lived in the apartment in the school’s northeast wing. That changed in 1966 when the school was left the house at 416 West Springfield Avenue, across from the varsity football field. The bequest of Mrs. Charles B. Jennings, whose late husband was a member of CHA’s class of 1901, Jennings House has served as home to every headmaster since Nat Saltonstall moved in late in the 1965-1966 school year.

The largest of the many changes to the Inn took place in the early 1970s when much of the building was renovated. The dining room moved to the old swimming pool. The old kitchen and dining room space in the western part of the first floor became home to an enlarged library and the math department.

An arcade that connected the main building to the new dining room commons was, at first, the subject of some derision. It gradually became such a part of the school that when it was torn down 25 years later many were sorry to see it go.

Included in the plans for the Accent on Advancement Campaign that raised the money for the 1970 renovations was a new performing arts center. When the campaign came up short, that component was postponed.

In the late 1930s, to address the ongoing need for performance space, CHA had floored over the swimming pool and built a stage to provide the school with an auditorium. This was never really adequate for the drama and music departments. The result was that many school plays and concerts were held in the Woodward Gym, which was less than ideal for a school whose indoor athletic facilities were already bursting at the seams.

In 1973, with the performing arts program desperately in need of dedicated space and the athletic department finding it increasingly difficult for its space to serve both athletics

and the performing arts, the idea of using the old recre-ation building as a performing arts center was proposed.

The Rec, as it is known, had originally been the stable for the Inn. Later it was used for indoor athletics and, in 1945, became the home of the Wissahickon Badminton Club. In 1953 the Rec’s western half collapsed, due, it is thought, to the erosion of its foundation by an underground stream. While the school continued to play badminton there, its use by CHA was reduced to almost nothing. But it was the school’s building and, after surveys and inspections, it was deemed to be just what was needed for the school’s music and theater programs.

Since there was already some money given for a performing arts center and the cost of the renovations was relatively modest— less than $200,000—construc-tion began in the summer of 1973. Students and faculty members contributed labor that was valued at slightly more than $10,000. It opened January 17, 1974, with the Players production of The Fantasticks.

Four years after it opened, when long-time CHA faculty member Albert B. Conkey retired, the building was named in his honor. Conkey had, since 1942, been the center of the school and community music programs. At his acceptance of the honor he said with typical humor, “Conkey is now a Rec.”

During the period between the opening of the Rec as a performing arts center and the mid-1990s a lot of deferred maintenance issues were dealt with. No new construction was undertaken, however. During that time several of the fields, and the new gym, were dedicated to faculty members who made significant contributions to the school and specifically to its athletic programs.

At Homecoming in November 1973, the new (a/k/a the “large”) gym was dedicated to former headmaster Robert A. Kingsley. It was during his headmastership that the school reestablished its Upper School and thus needed the new locker room and basketball facilities that were built on his watch.

In the spring of 1974 the varsity baseball field was named for William E. Shuttleworth, a beloved and successful coach and master at the school from 1926 to 1938.

That fall, the field just west of Shuttleworth Field was named the Wales/Charles Field in honor of longtime masters, great coaches, and great friends Percy A. Wales and Daniel W. Charles. Both died while still on the faculty, Wales in 1964 and Charles a decade later. They were great friends, superb teachers, adored by their students, and also great com-petitors, each always bragging that his team was superior to the other’s. (Charles coached the 90-pound football and 11-year old baseball teams and Wales the 80 pounders and 10-year olds.) It was a rivalry that still brings smiles to the faces of many alumni who played for them.

In 1990, the varsity football field on St. Martin’s Green was dedicated in honor of Charles H. Landreth ’29. Mr. Landreth was one of the most dedicated of all CHA alumni and the father of two CHA graduates. He also served as the school’s business manager from 1965 to 1978 and as alumni archivist until his retirement in 1989.

The last field to be dedicated was the varsity soccer field, which runs along Willow Grove Avenue between the tennis courts and Cherokee Street. Named in 2000 for James M. Talbot II, it honored a man who had taught at the school since 1966, had served as direc-tor of admissions and director of athletics, and coached the varsity soccer team to nine Inter-Academic League championships. In addition to the creation and dedication of

Springside moves 5th to 12th grades to Cherokee Street

Russia launches Sputnik

Kline Science Building opens

Balis Library opens

Upper level of new gymnasium opens

Jordan Primary Building opens

Jennings House becomes headmaster’s home

Springside consoli-dates entire school on Cherokee Street Campus

Huron Street between Willow Grove and Springfield Avenues removed from city plan, becomes part of CHA campus

Wissahickon Inn renovated, dining room moved to former swimming pool

Arcade built

New gymnasium named for Robert A. Kingsley

Frank B. Baird, Jr. ’21 gives $1 million to Science Department

Percy A. Wales, above, and Daniel W. Charles, great friends, superb teachers, and friendly coaching rivals, after whom Wales/Charles Field is named.

The Epiphany Chapel, originally a ballroom for the Inn and later a gym before its floor was lowered to accommodate its new function. The Chapel features stained glass windows designed by alumnus Henry L. Willet ’18 with the theme “Youth Searches for Understanding.”

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Talbot Field, Landreth Field, the Pearson Tennis Courts, and the track were all completely renovated.

While the performing arts now had a home of their own, the fine arts were still squirreled away in the basement. In 2000 a new art wing was added to the western end of the main building in a location previously home to maintenance vehicles and trash bins. Part of the new wing is a gallery named in honor of Barbara Crawford who taught art at the school from 1942 until her retirement in 1990.

Art has always played an important part in the history of the school both in the class-room and on the walls. In the first decade of the 20th century the renowned Violet Oakley painted three biblical scenes that are attached to the north wall of the Henry Library. They depict the boy David, the boy Solomon, and the boy Jesus.

A century later, thanks to the generosity of Henry McNeil ’61, the well-known modern artist Sol LeWitt installed seven of his designs: five on the main hallway outside the math wing, one over the fireplace in the library annex, and one in the Crawford Gallery. The project included the preparation of the walls to be of museum quality.

In the Epiphany Chapel, five stained glass windows, designed by Willet Studios, have replaced the simpler windows installed when the chapel was created in 1905. Henry L. Willet ’18 played a large part in the windows’ designs that have as their central theme “Youth Searches for Understanding.”

Added over a period of 20 years beginning in 1966, the individual windows are entitled “Understanding Others,” “Understanding Our Cultural Heritage,” “Understanding Our Environment,” “Understanding Self,” and “Understanding God.”

Other changes to the Inn itself were also made during the last 50 years. Among them were the establishment of the Balis Junior School Library, the creation of ramps and the installation of an elevator to make the school more handicap accessible, and the return of the roof to its original deep red color after years of being battleship gray.

During the mid-1960s, CHA and Springside School began holding coordinate classes. The two schools had been work-ing together for many years. Since Springside moved its 5th through 12th grades onto its present campus in 1957, fol-lowed 12 years later by the younger grades, the two institu-tions have enjoyed an increasingly close relationship. The most significant part of that relationship is the Coordinate Program.

The schools share many facilities: Upper School classes are held on both campuses, and the performing arts are presented either in the Conkey Center, the chapel, or one of the Springside auditoriums. Athletic facilities – most notably the tennis courts, the squash courts, and Springside’s newly completed fitness center and rowing tank – are used by both schools.

The relationship was strengthened in 1976 when the Woodward family established the Springside/Chestnut Hill Foundation (called informally the SpringHill Foundation and now known as the CHASS Foundation) to benefit joint projects. The first initiative it funded was wiring both schools for computer access, enabling any student or faculty member on either campus to communicate on the same system with others at either school.

In 2001 Springside needed to completely rebuild its Upper School. The project would take at least a full year during which the girls would need alternative housing. The original thought was to rent trailers, but the cost and noise from the proximate construction made this less than an ideal solution.

Conversations between the two schools led to the decision to renovate CHA’s long- dormant third floor. At first it would be the home for Springside’s Upper School; thereafter it would be used by CHA. The SpringHill Foundation paid the close-to-$1 million cost.

One of the discoveries made by the workmen during the renovations was that the three wings of the Inn had been constructed separately. Each wing likely had a different builder. The three separate constructions joined together to make the Inn as we know it today. The use of support beams, some of them 20 feet in length, differs in all three wings. Turning the former hotel and dorm rooms into classrooms was a challenge but one that ultimately was aesthetically pleasing. The third floor would also become the only part of the main building to be fully air-conditioned.

2007 20081974 1978 1983 1990 2000 2002 2004 2006

Performing Arts Center opens in old Recreation building

Shuttleworth Field dedicated

Wales/Charles Field dedicated

Performing Arts Center named for Albert B. Conkey

Wissahickon Inn roof replaced, returned to original red color

Landreth Field dedicated

New art gallery opens named for Barbara Crawford

Talbot Field dedicated

Third floor renovated as temporary home for Springside’s Upper School

Middle School moves to renovated third floor

New Commons/dining room opens

New Woodward Gym opens

Commons Room named for Henry F. “Nick” Harris ‘47

The Rorer Center for Science and Technology opens

Work on the third floor began as school ended in 2002 and was completed in time for the opening of school that September. Springside moved all its Upper School classes, its library, and its science labs to CHA’s third floor. Lunch and athletics still took place at their home cam-pus.

After Springside’s new Upper School opened in January 2004, CHA decided that the best use for the new space would be as home for the Middle School (6th through 8th grades). Readying the space for CHA’s boys took some additional renovation and cost about $600,000.

As the school continued to grow in the late 20th century, the dining room and the gym-nasium facilities became increasingly cramped. To correct that, the dining/commons room was enlarged and the old Woodward Gym was razed to make way for a new gym, also named for the Woodwards. Both these facilities, which preserved the architectural style of their predecessors, opened in 2006. A year later the Commons was dedicated to the memory of Henry F. “Nick” Harris ’47, an alumnus, for-mer parent, and former trustee who generously supported both CHA and Springside.

The most recent campus addition is The Rorer Center for Science and Technology. Advances in science and technology had rendered the tired old Kline building obsolete. The new building—named in honor of alumnus, former board chairman, and benefactor Edward C. “Ted” Rorer ’61—provides the latest in classroom facilities in a “green” envelope designed to have a low impact on the environment. The center is the first area school building to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The new facility opened to students in December 2008 and was dedicated in January 2009. It was built between the Wissahickon Inn and the playground on St. Martin’s Green. Wind, photovoltaic cells, and solar-thermal panels generate some of the power for the building. Other green features include the use of recycled construction material; greywa-ter collection tanks that supply water for irrigation and for flushing the low-flo toilets; a rain garden designed to absorb the rainwater runoff from the building; and a porous parking lot designed to reduce runoff and limit area flooding.

An arboretum, consisting of trees native to the area, has been planted around the building. According to local historian David R. Contosta’s A Philadelphia Family: The Houstons and Woodwards of Chestnut Hill, “several years after the [Wissahickon Inn] was completed, Houston laid out an arboretum just east of the inn which he called St. Martin’s Green.” The new arboretum revives the Wissahickon Inn’s, which disappeared when the school began to grow and take over the land on which it existed. Part of St. Martin’s Green is now the varsity football field and part the school’s playground.

In terms of architecture, the large gym, the Kline Science Building, and the Jordan Primary Building were built more for utility than aesthetics. That approach changed during the period beginning in the 1970s when a growing

appreciation of the Inn’s distinctive Queen Anne style led the school to echo that style in new construction, not only in the attached art wing but also in the freestanding Rorer Center.

The alterations to the buildings and each new construction have all been undertaken for a single purpose: to improve the boys’ educational experience. Headmaster Frank Steel ’77 says that “what we have to remember every time we build a building is you don’t build because it’s jazzy to build, you build it because it allows you to do something for the stu-dents you’re not otherwise able to do.”

The boys have been well served by the campus changes. Despite the many improve-ments, the latest in design, and the most up-to-date technology, anyone returning to the school’s entrance will feel instantly back at the place he knew, no matter how long ago he last visited. It is the character of the familiar old building, where over a century of boys have studied and grown, that serves as an emblem of CHA’s stability and strength.

Mrs. Jordan at the Jordan Building dedication, flanked by curious student onlookers.

Two mid-20th-century additions to campus, the Jordan Primary Building, above, and the Kline Science Building, below. These buildings, envisioned as more functional than aesthetic, predate the school’s current interest in honoring the style of its Main Building, as exempli-fied in newer campus structures, such as the Art Wing and The Rorer Center for Science and Technology.